Self-assembled cholesteric liquid crystal gels: preparation and scattering-based electrooptical switching

Abstract

Two gelator compounds were used to prepare self-assembled cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) gels. The presence of a physical network formed by the fibrous aggregates of the gelators in the CLC host creates inhomogeneous domains and generates a highly scattering state. The scattering-based electrooptical switching effects of the CLC gels were investigated by changing a number of parameters such as the texture of the CLC in which the aggregation of the gelator occurs, the concentration of gelator and the concentration of chiral dopant. The resulting network of aggregates determines the electrooptical response as it affects the light scattering by the CLC domains in the field-off state and the degree of CLC alignment as well as the light scattering by the network in the field-on state.